If it hasn't happened to you already, there'll be a time in your life when you're too far into a project to quit, but it seems crazy to carry on. At this point, you need to make a decision to cut your losses, or continue on and finish a project that you never would have started had you known how bad it was going to get. This is one of those projects for myself and the crew at Fabworx Off Road. The '74 K5 we had started ("Building a PreMudder," Dec. '06) had become a real headache. The frame was terrible and in desperate need of repair, there was rust in the body, and what we thought was a lucky-stroke running 396 big-block turned out to be a waste of time. Just remember: Project trucks are fun, and you need to keep telling yourself that when it starts looking bad.

This month, the Fabworx crew were able to make progress. Instead of fixing a bunch of stuff, we were actually now adding modifications. We were down to a time crunch of just under a month, and things were starting to come together. In this second installment, we were able to get a big-block Chevy built for power and a four-link fabbed up to control the rear 14-bolt that Tim put a Yukon Gear gearset and spool in last month. However, I knew it was going to be bad when the oil-pan drain plug was pulled and Jack Arrington said to me, "Uh, I don't want to tell you there's metal in your oil, but there's metal in your oil."